Anyone keeping bantams?

Originally Posted by chrisinflight

I keep 5 hens and a **** on my allotment. i`ve had them for about 3 years so feel free to ask any questions. The most common question asked is, of course- "Do you need the **** for the hens to lay eggs?" (No, but your girls will be happy)
cheers,
chris

Thanks Chris, but id already worked that one out!

Svrich has answered my questions cos hes a little gem, I was totally overthinking it all as usual. Cant wait to get the girls, will post a pic, and once theyre here ill no doubt have another hundred questions!!!

Pete, will check out that forum, thanks xx

Where are you getting your bantams from? My mrs needs to get a couple of bantams to go with the one she has just got from my mum.

Cheers,

[stormingjoe]

When I kept choocks, we built a coop high enough to stand in and the sides deep into the ground and take wire over the top as well, stop foxes getting in, had a shelter to lay in and a couple of old tree branches as they like to roost off ground, in the wild they live in tree when not scratching round, vary the diet, include corn and other feeds and the odd worm and meal worms live is best and some off your waste food!! Very easy to look after just scrape coop out and use hay for bedding and straw for coop floor, the get smelly in warm weather. If you like gardening particularly roses, compost the waste and give to the roses as makes excellent fertiliser.


Podgey on a motorbike ;0D

Ive bought a secondhand (but excellent condition) run with shelter and nesting box and was going to put shavings and straw in. Is it ok to put newspaper in at the bottom?
Im planning on feeding layers pellets plus veg, corn, mealworms, spaghetti and whatever else they may like as a treat.
I was mainly concerned about keeping the coop mite free as there are so many products out there but i wasnt sure how necessary they would be. So i'll be using diatom powder around the perch and shelter after cleaning. Will that be enough, some people dont seem to bother, others seem to overdo it???

I was looking at getting 3 pekins from http://thebarnspoultrycentre.co.uk/ but the lady i bought the run from had some beautiful hens so i may be getting those instead (£10 each instead of £40!!!)

[stormingjoe]

Titchy eggs. If they are happy they will lay 1 a day each, never had problems with mites, scrape crap out at least weekly if not twice, if a portable coop move it to new spot when cleaning allow the ground under to recover, like all animals you would keep an eye out and treat accordingly, mine ate anything!! Buy some grit and salt blocks to peck at, and give them the egg shells once you have eggs.


Podgey on a motorbike ;0D

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=171679

Picked up 'my girls' yesterday and they're great!!

[IMG][/IMG]

They are all Pekins.
The buff on the left is 20wks and called waffles,
The golden partridge in the middle is Revels, also 20 wks,
The millifleur on the right is Speckles and is 15 weeks.
They are fully vaccinated and wormed and happy to be held, even by my noisy kids!!

Im addicted already and am conjuring up plans to convert a part of my garden into a large run in the spring. Its about 3m x 7m. At the moment its covered partly in gravel, partly in bark chippings but the fabric underneath is all ripped and its a bit of a weed area so just has the kids big trampoline on it cos its no good for anything else as it is. Im tempted to fence it off, turf two-thirds of it and leave the remainder as it is, and get another 5 or 6 bantams, it'll be a haven for insects and would make a great chicken run!!

Or I could spend the money on Avon Storm Ultras, decisions decisions......

my mrs got her second one yesterday.
She already had one that we rescued from my mum as one of her's hatched it and then abandond it after 6 - 8 weeks, which is fairly normal aparently, but then the others started picking on it. Damn near pecked it to death, so we ended up having it.
Had it for about 3 weeks now but it was gettting lonely, or so the mrs said, so we went out and got another one yesterday.....

Which is now pecking the crap out of the first one!!
Hopefully they will sort it out, cos i aint building another hutch / run !!!

[Bluepete]

Hence the phrase "pecking order"

Well just got back to work from lunch, went home to check on the chickens and the one that i have had the longest (which i think is acutally the youngest, its definatly the smallest, but thats cos its a bantam cross) is missing a few more feathers and seams to have a small cut, just above where the top of its beak meets it head.
it was in the nest box when i got back with the new one in the run, it came out when i walked over to the run, but as soon as it was out the new one chased it and pecked it again untill it went back in.

is there anything that i can do to help the situation or is it a case of just leaving them to it? they have been together for about 24 hours now. (although they did go in to roost together last night.)

Think the mrs is starting to regret getting the second one now.